THE BIG PICTURE: Lights Out

09/01/2011 | Sonal Patel

Heat waves, droughts, and other weather and climate phenomena; economic woes; aging or inadequate infrastructure; fuel shortages. These are some of the most obvious causes that have led to record peaks in power demand or sudden drops in available capacity. The results have been sometimes debilitating load-shedding, brownouts, and blackouts around the globe this summer (and, in some cases, for much longer). Here’s an overview of which countries are affected by which difficulties. For a more detailed look at the extent of shortages and what’s causing them, visit Web Exclusives at https://www.powermag.com. —Sonal Patel, senior writer

Notes:Size of graphic is related solely to the number of countries coping with a particular contributing factor to power outage problems; it is not intended to be to scale for population, generating capacity, or percentage of unavailable capacity. Nor is this necessarily a complete list of countries suffering power outages this summer. In most cases, multiple causes could be said to be responsible for outages. The ones identified are those that other news and governmental sources have identified as being most directly and obviously responsible for current outages and shortages. Though incandescent lightbulbs are being phased out in North America, the phase-out is not happening at the same pace elsewhere. Besides, do you really want to try to read text on CFL curves or tiny LED bulbs?

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